


Thief

by AnonJay



Category: Moana (2016)
Genre: First Meetings, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-12
Updated: 2018-04-12
Packaged: 2019-04-22 01:39:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14297949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnonJay/pseuds/AnonJay
Summary: Desperation, loneliness, and a well-intentioned but inevitably awful decision.





	Thief

Another day, another great feat for the benefit of humanity.

Maui was relaxing at a little camp he had set up. As the demigod lounged in the warm firelight, it was the very picture of peace as he relaxed from another long day of being amazing.

... Or it would’ve been if not for the dozens of fearful, glowing eyes staring out at him from shadows between the even more obnoxiously bright colors of Lalotai.

Yeesh, how could anything ever sleep down here?

He groaned as he rocked back up into a sitting position. If he couldn’t sleep, maybe he should get up and do something instead.

“Hey, Mini? You awake?” He jabbed at his chest where the living tattoo of himself usually held up the sky, but the ink was unresponsive right now. It was late at night, afterall, and consciences needed rest too.

Another groan, and Maui bounced up onto his feet... So... Can’t sleep... No one to talk to... In a world filled with hundreds upon hundreds of monsters that would gladly tear him limb from limb...

Something broke the silence with a large growl...

But it was only Maui’s stomach.

“Guess a midnight snack couldn’t hurt,” he laughed to himself.

He sauntered over to a small pile of miscellaneous fruits he’d brought down into the Realm of Monsters. Maui helped himself to a mango, and used one of the teeth on his necklace to cut open the red and green skin.

He took a bite of the sweet flesh inside as he looked up to the dark, watery ceiling that hung high above the Realm of Monsters. It churned and rumbled as a storm roared somewhere thousands of feet above... That’s why he’d come here after all. Legends told of some sort of gift from the gods that had been lost in Lalotai, that could quell any storm within seconds, and this one had been raging for months...

Months of Maui searching down here...

By himself...

All alone...

...

Certainly was lonely without someone to talk to...

...

... B-but what did that matter? He was Maui! Soon he would be... back up on the surface with something new for the humans, and he’d be showered in attention again!

... Right?

A shuffling sound behind him tore him from his thoughts, and Maui turned around just in time to see something disappear through a nearby bush. He was about to let it go as some curious animal that got too close... until he noticed that something was missing.

“Hey, my food!”

The scuttling sound picked up speed, and Maui tossed his half-eaten fruit aside and grabbed his famous hook from beside the fire. With a sharp battlecry, he tore off after the thief, brandishing his weapon as the carvings on it burned a bright blue.

“Get back here!”

He jumped through the underbrush, ready to smash the curved end of the hook on whatever had made the mistake of stealing from a demigod, but as he landed...

Well, he was certainly surprised by what he found.

He had expected some sort of large, colorful monster with terrifying claws and toothy jaws... But standing in front of him, caught red-handed with an armload of fruit...

Was a drab little coconut crab, still in its shell.

“... What the-”

“EEP!” The blue-gray crab dropped the mangoes and bananas and immediately retreated into his shell so fast that he’d disappeared before it even hit the ground.

Maui blinked, and pushed through the leafy fronds to kneel beside the crab... For a monster, it was certainly one of the smallest he’d ever seen. The shell was no bigger than a coconut, and fit easily in his over-sized hand as he picked it up. Not exactly the prettiest shell in the world, but it was sturdy, and didn’t have any holes or cracks.

The claw covering the opening was shaking as the demigod peered in for a closer look.

“What do you think you’re doin’, tiny?” He knocked on the lip of the shell with his knuckle. Suddenly, the claw shot out, grabbing hold of Maui’s finger with enough force to snap a regular human’s finger.

“YOWCH!”

He tried to tug the finger away, but the claw held fast, even as the crab found himself dangling in unsupported air as the other hand fell away. Two frightened eyestalks poked out from the safety of the shell, and the crab chirped nervously as he looked up to the angered demigod.

“Let go, ya little shrimp!” Maui roared as he tried to pull him off by force. “’Bout to make you into a crabcake if ya-! ... you...”

His expression suddenly softened as he got a good look at the little crab... He had large, and worryingly fresh scratch down the left side of his face, reaching from eyestalk all the way down to the corner of his mouth. The eye itself seemed damaged as well, and its pupil was enormous compared to the other...

And the worst part? This crab was clearly just a child.

He chittered something in a harsh, almost haunting language... completely unintelligible to human ears, but anyone could tell that the crab was terrified.

Maui sighed... all anger over his stolen mangoes and bruised finger slipping away. He brought his hand up again to support the shell.

“Hey, it’s alright there, kid. I’m not gonna hurt ya.”

The crab blinked, but didn’t let go.

With a heavy plop, Maui sat down in the sand, and carefully set the little crab down in front of him.

“See? You’re fine. Not mad anymore... But I do want my finger back.”

He gave his finger a few, much more gentle tugs. The crab glanced between the imprisoned digit and Maui’s face, then reluctantly released his grip and fled back into his shell.

Maui chuckled, and reached for one of the dropped fruits that lay nearby. “You must be pretty hungry if you were desperate enough to steal from me.” He peeled the banana, tore off a chunk and set it down in front of the shell.

No response, but that was to be expected.

He ripped off another chunk. “Looks like you got in some kind of scrap too, huh, tiny? Been there.” The demigod chuckled. “Been getting in fights myself since you were born... hatched? Ah, whatever. Not like you can understand me anyway.”

The crab peeked out of the shell, and slowly scooted himself to the offered fruit, though he still kept his nervous gaze on the towering giant of a man. He slowly sheared off a piece with his claw, gauging Maui’s reaction all the while, then quickly shoved the piece into his mouth. When there was still no reaction, the little monster dragged the rest of the chunk closer to himself and tore into it as if his little life depended on it.

Maybe it did.

“You were really hungry, huh.”

Maui thoughtfully finished the banana himself as he watched the little crab eat. He found himself mulling over how monsters this tiny (and kind of adorable) even managed to grow up into the terrifying beasts that occasionally raided the surface. This thing was only a baby, and already looked a few more bad days away from death.

“You must be all alone out here.” He tossed the peel aside and reached down to pet the crab’s shell, but now that he was a little braver and fed, the crab simply tried to swat Maui’s hand away. “Nobody looking out for ya?”

He’d been there too... Abandoned... left for dead... forced to face the world on his own... No kid deserved that, even if they were a monster.

Maybe, he could-

A faint buzzing sensation prickled the skin on Maui’s pectoral, and he looked down to see his tattoo shaking his head disapprovingly at him.

“Well look who finally woke up.”

The tattoo frowned.

“Ugh, fine. What am I doing wrong this time?”

Mini Maui summoned a tiny, stylized crab beside him, and pantomimed fawning over it and giving it plenty of love and attention... but then the tiny crab started to grow, and as it grew, its face went from an innocent smile to a terrifying snarl. It started to attack Maui’s other tattoos, tearing apart trees and sending people running and screaming, and Mini Maui was left standing and watching in horror at the destruction. Then, with a silent snap of his fingers, tattoos returned to normal, and he gave another pointed look at his host before pointing at the little crab still eating in front of them.

Maui rolled his eyes. “Pfffft... You’re over-reacting. It’s not like I’m gonna keep him forever.”

Mini-Maui crossed his arms and tapped his foot, but again, Maui dismissed him. Instead, he reached down and scooped up the small crab in his palm. The child squeaked and hid again, but the demigod just smiled as he held him steady.

“You’re coming with me, crabcake,” he reassured as he stood up and turned back towards the camp.

“Never gonna have to worry about getting hurt ever again... Not while you’re with Maui! Demigod of the Wind and Sea!”

His tattoo facepalmed as he sat down on his inked mountaintop... This was going to end horribly, wasn’t it...


End file.
